Ready to fly (UPDATED w/2mo CHECKUP)

Milly's 2 Month Checkup Result:

12.6lbs/5.7kg - 39% fatter!

&

23in/.6m - 13% taller!

(and now she's just talkin' away to the dragonflies in her bouncer)

Anyway, we souped up a pic of lil' Amelia in photoshop for her passport and visa applications...yeah, we're trying to get back to the Holy Land (for us, Sydney). Brad has had some crazy experiences as of late with Aussie's randomly showing up at his office, and has quite the story to tell about networking his way to the top of a bunch of production companies down there.



One of the series Brad's working on (Inside - Season 2) has an episode on the airshow in OshKosh, WI this past week, and NatGeo hired 3 Aussies (2 living in Italy now, and 1 in the UK) to produce and shoot it. In talking to them, Brad mentions (out of the blue) that he used to live in Wollongong (his first area on the mish), and that Kim loved it there when we visited, and the producer turns to him stunned, and says that he grew up there, and Brad and he hit it off real quick (mentioning Mt Keira, camping at Jervis Bay, surfin' Kiama, etc). After having lunch with the three, he went away with a bunch of industry contacts down in Sydney.

The best, though, was a week ago, when he felt impressed to ask a producer lady he works with (who lived in Sydney for many years) if she had any contacts, and low and behold, an executive of one of the largest production companies down there just happened to be in DC that week meeting with Discovery Channel and NatGeo, and that she'd be delighted to meet with him. This executive lady met with Brad the next day in his office, and she got him in contact with a sponsoring agency (Australia has tough immigration regulations, but can be by-passed if someone will sponsor you, which this company now has for Brad), and said pretty much if he were in the country, they'd hire him.

The most random thing happened when he mentioned that we lived in Russell Lea and asked which suburb she lives in. She said Russell Lea, and that no one knows where thats at (apparently one of the smaller suburbs), and it ends up that she lives right around the corner from our old apartment on Lyons Rd, about 5 houses away! So that created a good link.

He has had referral after referral, and it gets to the point that he's 5 referrals/recommendations down the line and he'll be on the phone at midnight (2pm in Sydney) with the managing director of some company (and its the funniest when they say things like, "oh, say hi to John for me", except Brad's never met John, or the lady who referred him, or the guy who referred him to that lady, etc!).

So, all in all, we feel really good about how things are turning out, and if it's what the Lord would have us do, then we'll definitely be there (and hope that people will save the money to come visit us this time!).